Realizing you have a flat tire is always extremely frustrating. You have to get out of your car, change the flat, and figure out where to go from there. Getting your car to a repair shop as safely and quickly as possible is the best option.

If you’re lucky that day, the mechanic might be able to simply patch the flat tire and send you on your merry way. However, if your tire is damaged beyond repair, you’ll need to buy a new one. This can be costly, and many people wonder, “How long can I safely drive on my spare tire?” Well, the best answer to that question is, “It depends.”

The type of spare tire you have makes a difference. The distance you can safely drive after a flat tire depends on the type of spare your vehicle comes equipped with:

Safe-Saver/Donut Spare
These types of tires were created to save space and weight in your vehicle, not built to last. Check your owner’s manual to find out what the recommended time and speed is for driving on a spare tire. A good rule to follow is to drive no more than 70 miles and no faster than 50 mph before you replace your donut with a new tire. With little to no tread, your spare tire is vulnerable to road hazards and you’ll want it replaced as soon as possible.

On the week, the majority of states saw gas prices decrease minimally – by one to two cents or saw no change at the pump. Though low, the volatility was enough to drive the national average down a penny from last Monday to $2.17. Today’s average is two cents less than last month and 49 cents cheaper than a year ago.

“As we move into the second week of the August, it is pricing out to be the second cheapest start to the month in more than a decade,” said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson. “Gas prices have high potential to push cheaper, especially with many school districts planning for virtual learning. This could drive demand down in the weeks ahead as school starts at-home.”

In the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly report, gas demand fell from 8.8 million b/d to 8.6 million b/d while stocks held steady at 247 million bbl.

Trends show travelers are eager, but anxious to explore, booking last-minute trips; INRIX provides travelers with insight on summer traffic

ORLANDO, Fla. (June 25, 2020) – This summer, AAA forecasts Americans will take 700 million trips based on economic indicators and state re-openings. That number is down nearly 15% compared to last July through September and is the first decline in summer travel since 2009. AAA booking trends show Americans are making travel plans, though cautiously and more spur of the moment.

“Americans will get out and explore this summer though they’re taking a ‘wait and see approach’ when it comes to booking and are likely to book more long weekend getaways than extended vacations,” said Paula Twidale, AAA’s senior vice president of Travel. “When they do venture out, travelers will take to the road with 683 million car trips to satisfy their wanderlust.”

Car trips reign supreme accounting for 97% of the favored mode of transportation. Car trips will also see the smallest decrease in travel volume of just 3% year-over-year. Air travel will be off by about 74%, while rail, cruise ship and bus travel will slide by 86%. Were it not for the pandemic, AAA would be projecting 857 million trips during the third quarter, a 3.6% increase over last year. By this analysis, the pandemic wiped out nearly 150 million person-trips this summer.

AAA travel experts have begun to see positive trends in travel, noting that hotel and rental car bookings have been gradually increasing since April. Air travel has been slower to rebound. The share of travelers making plans 48 hours to 7 days before departure – a sign that people are arranging last-minute trips – is significantly higher than normal.

Worrying about how to beat the heat in sunny Arizona should be your only concern this summer, not if your engine will overheat as well! When something goes wrong in your vehicle’s cooling system, all components of the engine are running at too high of a temperature. If this happens, parts of the engine can warp or melt, which could potentially result in costly repairs or a new engine all together.

Here is what is happening in your engine’s cooling system: the heat from your engine is absorbed by coolant, which the engine’s water pump pushes to the radiator. Here it is cooled and recirculated back into your vehicle’s engine. A little preventative maintenance can help ensure that the cooling system is working properly.

What to do if your car overheats

It's important that self-driving cars quickly detect other cars or pedestrians sharing the road. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that they can significantly improve detection accuracy by helping the vehicle also recognize what it doesn't see.

Empty space, that is.

The very fact that objects in your sight may obscure your view of things that lie further ahead is blindingly obvious to people. But Peiyun Hu, a Ph.D. student in CMU's Robotics Institute, said that's not how self-driving cars typically reason about objects around them.